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On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Joseph P. McDonald manned the switchboard at Fort Shafter in Hawaii when he received the alarming message that radar had detected a large number of planes approaching from the north, heading fast for Oahu.
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Motorists who use the Pango mobile app to pay at parking meters in Scranton will get reimbursed for any inadvertent overcharges since Sept. 1, the new operator of the city’s parking system said.
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The ailing Valley View High School pool is temporarily closed. School board directors unanimously voted Wednesday to decommission the natatorium and preserve the area until funding becomes available
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Editor: I am a Department of Defense civilian employed in Northeast Pennsylvania whose pay has been frozen for a number of years. I've now been notified of a pending furlough, which equates to an approximate 20 percent pay reduction for the remainder of the fiscal year.

I do not seek sympathy as I realize there are people who are worse off than me and my family.

I want to apologize up front for the hardship my furlough is going to cause others in the community.

If I am not working and earning wages then I am not paying wage-based taxes. My local and state taxes will be 20 percent less. Someone else will have to make up my shortfall or we will all have to scale back or do without.

Restaurants and local merchants will suffer because they won't be getting what I would have earned on my furlough day. I no longer can afford to spend it there.

I will have to cut back on charitable donations, too.

I don't earn that much but if you take the combined federal workforce in the area, the economic impact is huge. Unlike the FAA furlough, where everyone felt the impact immediately through the air traffic system. The defense department and other federal agency furloughs will not be so readily visible.

It won't be noticed until it has already hit, caused the damage, and disappeared with no hope of recovery.

If you want to help avoid the looming fiscal disaster, please contact your elected representatives and demand they do not furlough federal employees.

There are other places where savings can be had besides civilian pay.

J.P. HUBER

THORNHURST

Park's best interest sacrificed in deal

Editor: Meeting minutes submitted by environmental groups, as part of the ongoing court challenge of the National Park Service's approval of the Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line through three National Park units, found that the Department of the Interior accepted $60 million in mitigation money to approve the utility companies' preferred route, Route B.

Those minutes state NPS preferred a proposed alternative that would bring the line outside park boundaries. However, at the meeting, then-DOI Secretary Ken Salazar demanded, "So here's the deal: I want $60 m [million] and I want it now" for the project to be sited along Route B through the park. The companies accepted the deal on the condition of having environmental reviews done by October 2012.

Approving the Susquehanna-Roseland Line was a transactional decision, not one based on science or what was best for the Delaware Water Gap. We believed the mitigation money was an excuse to approve the line, now we know it was a sellout. This is one of the saddest chapters in the history of the National Park Service.

The line would cause irreparable harm to national parks. The environmental review found the project would cause $89 million in damage to the park. You cannot mitigate damages to our national parks, which are supposed to be preserved for future generations.

The "no build" alternative is the only option that would prevent the destruction of resources and should have been selected by NPS to protect our parks.

JEFF TITTEL

DIRECTOR,

N.J. SIERRA CLUB

Zone defense to thwart U of S

Editor: I thank the zoning board and Scranton City Council for standing up to the bullies at the University of Scranton. These people have taken millions of dollars away from the city by purchasing so many properties and taking them off the tax rolls.

This university takes in tens of millions of dollars and donates a mere $175,000 a year. Now they want a $45 million project so they can make more money.

Over one-third of the city is nonprofit properties. We need to get rid of nonprofit status for churches, hospitals, soup kitchens, etc. Nonprofits need to pay their fair share.

The only people who get anything out of these U of S projects are the self-serving union people who beg council and the zoning board for approval. How many of those union leaders and members live and pay taxes in Scranton?

The same goes for developers who want to buy up all the homes and turn them into rooming houses for students. It's good these people also got shot down.

Hats off to the zoning board. Have these nonprofits come up with a lot more money than they donate now or turn the keys of Scranton over to them and let them pay all our bills.

The free ride is over. These boards are using common sense and taking care of the taxpayers for a change.

CHARLIE NEWCOMB SR.

SCRANTON

Dump biz tax cuts; fund education

Editor: Time is running out for students.

Less than two weeks remain for state lawmakers to begin to undo the damage they have done with deep funding cuts to schools. A House budget plan leaves nearly 85 percent of those cuts in place, doing little to hire back nurses and counselors or to restore music, arts and sports programs.

Senate leaders and Gov. Tom Corbett's administration have signaled a willingness to delay a business tax cut next year. Keeping the tax rate at 2012 levels could raise $360 million to restore some of the deepest school cuts. Sen. Jake Corman asks: "Is that phaseout more important than education dollars?"

Schools across Pennsylvania have been forced to absorb state funding cuts, but the students from the poorest school districts have gotten the worst of it. The students with the greatest challenges should not be asked to sacrifice more to pay for a new round of tax cuts for profitable corporations.

Delaying an unaffordable business tax cut is the fiscally responsible thing to do and the best way to restore critical educational opportunities for our children.

LAWRENCE A. FEINBERG

KEYSTONE STATE EDUCATION COALITION,

HAVERFORD TWP.

SCHOOL BOARD, DELAWARE COUNTY

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